Blinking furiously Stiles turned on a heel to leave. He didn’t even know what had drawn him to Derek’s loft in the first place. It was becoming a trend, arriving in strange places without knowing why he was there. Stiles had a little more sympathy for Lydia now.
“You were supposed to have Scott,” Peter’s voice said behind him, dripping with false sympathy. "You’ve been friends for so long. The bond between you two is nearly unbreakable. I’ve no doubt your abilities would have naturally woken when Scott became an Alpha if not for Deaton.“
Stiles froze, one foot across the threshold. He reached out, grabbing the door tightly to keep himself upright.
“What do you mean,” he asked over his shoulder. "Deaton warned us that there would be a darkness.“ Stiles couldn’t stop himself from shaking. Not now, he tried to tell him body. I can’t collapse here!
Leaning heavily against the door, he turned himself to meet Peter’s eyes. He wasn’t surprised to find the older man barely an arms length away.
“It isn’t the darkness that is causing your weakness, your blackouts.” Peter said. Leaning close, the wolf whispered, “You’re abilities were woken prematurely in that ice bath. Deaton knew it would happen and he still partnered you with the banshee.”
“Normally,” Peter said, raising his eyebrows. "Lydia would have been perfect to bring you back. But when you’re powers woke they sought out your Alpha but found a conductor for the dead instead. In the mean time, another Emissary had already attached himself to the Alpha you were destined for.“
Stiles swallowed, the tempo of his heartbeat picking up, as Peter closed the distance between them. The wolf braced his hands against the heavy door, bracketing Stiles between them. Stiles wanted to move but he knew if he tried that he would end up in a heap on the floor. Also, there was a niggling sensation, almost like an instinct, telling him that Peter was right.
“Alan Deaton made himself Scott’s emissary that night and, now, you’re dying because of it.” Stiles legs finally gave out beneath him. But Peter caught him before he could slip to the floor. Peter lifted him easy, cradling the boy to his chest with surprising gentleness. Then he bent his head, to whisper in Stiles’ ear.
“The worst part, is that he knew this would happen and did it anyway because he didn’t think you were worthy to guide the True Alpha.”
i just rewatched aladdin with the roommates and it got me thinking
aladdin wishes to be made a prince, but all genie does is get him a lot of stuff and money. that’s not what a prince is. a prince is the son of the king, someone in line for the throne. someone with a lot of money is just – rich. so what i think is:
genie goes okay, that’s a big one – and i can do it! but not on my own, not if you want to do it right. not if you truly want a chance to marry your princess for real, as a prince. and aladdin is a foolish, moral, kind boy – and he agrees. he’s fallen in love with jasmine, an innocent all encompassing love, and he’ll do anything for this sweet, clever girl he only knew for a few hours. so genie takes him across the desert, far from agrabah, and plops right in the middle of a skirmish and is like okay, good luck! and aladdin is like ?????
but there’s assholes with swords attacking a young girl, and aladdin doesn’t even have to think about that, just like when he stood in front of the whip for those little kids. there are three men against him, but he’s fast and clever and has been against a dozen trained palace guards. so it’s not easy to get out of there alive, especially with the little girl to protect, but he manages it with only a thin slice on his upper arm, and he’s endured worse for less. so he picks up the little girl and says “i think we should get out of here, hmm?” and she’s in a pretty red silk getup with tiny jewels encrusted on her like stars against sunset. and she nods and throws her arms around his neck. she won’t talk, only points in the direction of home, but aladdin’s okay with that, he’s used to quiet, scared kids. so he keeps up a steady stream of stories of agrabah, which seems almost like this other desert land. but there are more men with swords and aladdin is like what the fuck is going on, but he hides the girl in a corner and fights them too. and that’s how it goes all the way home. there’s no one on the streets really, and they all scatter when the men attack, and they keep on attacking, he fights his way all the way through the city with the girl on his hip or hidden away.
and he should have known, of course, but he was tired and bruised and bleeding by the time he realized the little girl is silently guiding him to the palace and he’s like why can’t you princesses stay inside??? but he walks up and the guards get one look at the child in his arms and whisk him through and multiple people try to take the girl away but she won’t budge from him, a stubborn pout to her lips as her hands remained locked behind his neck. and he’s finally tossed into a throne room where a tall old man is sitting in agony and two young men pace in front of him, each at least a decade older than aladdin. “they’ve taken our sister!” one of the younger men hiss, “i don’t care about their power or their connections, they’ve taken esfir, and we must go get her!”
“uh,” he clears his throat, “hi?”
and all three men whirl on him and the old man stumble-runs to him. esfir finally lets go of aladdin to picked up and twirled around by her father. the two men are rahim and shapur and they look in wonder at this dirty boy of fifteen who’s returned the girl to them, and he speaks with an accent and clearly is not from here and they get the story from him – he’s traveled across the desert because those in his own country want him dead. “you know,” rahim says as the king clutches at esfir in desperate relief, “you could have held her for ransom. you almost died saving her, and we would have paid handsomely to have her returned safely.”
and aladdin gives him a flat disapproving look, appearing in this moment four times his age, and says “people are not objects or bargaining chips. especially not lost little girls.” and rahim and shapur share an impressed conspiring look and they each grab one of his arms and lead him away. “hey! what are you -”
“do be quiet little brother,” shapur says cheerfully, “we really have to get you out of your rags.”
Little, perfectly cared for dolls, with specially made doll clothes, and doll shoes, and doll hair.
Not made from porcelain, but a nice cloth.
He generally kept the dolls out of sight, tucked away safe. Not because he was ashamed of having dolls, fuck you very much. Dolls as creative outlet or comfort item are appropriate for anyone at any age. No, these specific dolls he kept out of sight so as to avoid any… misunderstandings.
Since childhood, Ariel has been among my favorite Disney princesses. I connect with her deeply – and whenever someone (like Keira Knightley recently) brings up the old line that she is a ‘bad role model’ for young girls because she ‘gives up her voice for a man,’ my heart breaks.
That reading of Ariel’s character is reductive and inaccurate.
Everyone always mentions that Ariel was interested in the human world before meeting Eric, but not as many people point out how radical that makes her in the context of her own society.
Ariel lives in a society that is xenophobic towards humans, Triton at various points calls them “barbarians,” “savage,” and “incapable of any real feeling.” She lives in a society that constantly tells her that her interest in the human world is wrong and bad, something she struggles with at the start of Part of Your World:
By seeking a fuller understanding of the human world, Ariel actively challenges her father’s xenophobia, thinking for herself instead of accepting her society’s fears and prejudices.
The film goes out of its way to establish Ariel as an outsider within her own society. Think for a moment about the opening lines of Part of Your World:
Look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete? Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl The girl who has everything? Look at this trove, Treasures untold How many wonders can one cavern hold? Lookin’ around here you’d think Sure, she’s got everything…
People who criticize Ariel so often mis-characterize her as simply a spoiled teenager. The very statement, “She gave up her voice for a man!” implies she’s a foolish girl who throws her life and agency away in a fit of pique.
Yet, the opening of Part of Your Worldanticipates that certain members of the audience will have a superficial understanding of Ariel’s pain and directly addresses that. On a superficial level, Ariel does seem like “the girl who has everything.” She is the daughter of the most important merman in Atlantica, she has countless treasures hidden away in her grotto…
But that’s the thing, you see. They’re hidden in her grotto. Ariel may be the daughter of the sea-king, but the sea-king hates and fears humanity. Part of Your World is the most heartbreaking rebuttal to anyone who sees Ariel as a shallow teenager because it shows how alone she truly is. Except for Flounder, she has no one under the sea she can genuinely confide in. (She confides in Sebastian, of course, but he was sent by her father to spy on her and he does betray her trust
– by mistake, but he does). Her sisters and the rest of Atlantica presumably do not question the prejudices that cause the human world to be forbidden to the sea folk.
Ariel is an outcast, forced to hide who she is from the people who should love her unconditionally.
The more Part of Your World goes on, the more devastating and resonant Ariel’s collection of artifacts becomes.
These artifacts represent a void in her life and, at the same time, are the only means she has of filling that void.
She longs to have knowledge, but her society imposes ignorance on her. She longs to see the human world herself, to ask questions and finally be answered – but it is all denied her. The imposed ignorance forces her to live vicariously through the artifacts she collects.
She cannot see a couple dancing, so she must content herself with a music box.
She can only experience the shadow of fire on oil and canvas.
Her collection perpetually reminds her that there is a world beyond her reach. At the same time, it is her central way of interacting with that world. Yes, she can go up to to the surface and talk to Scuttle, but her collection is something so much more personal. These are items she saved from the ruins of ships, sometimes at the risk of her own life… so she could study them, learn from them, and lament the unjust rules of her society that prevent her from learning more…
Her courage, her curiosity, her thirst for knowledge are all bound up in these precious possessions.
And yes, they are objects. Yes, she wants more than a collection of objects. But this collection is all she has. And, as far as Ariel knows, it is all she will ever have…
When you’re all but alone in the world and you have only meager scraps to cling to, those scraps mean the world to you.
And, I remind you, Ariel cannot even openly enjoy her collection of scraps, the shadows of a world she cannot touch. She has to hide even them, guard them, keep them secret.
Ariel’s grotto is a place of solace and security where she can be herself without fear of judgment.
There is a reason the destruction of Ariel’s grotto harrowed me more as a child than any other scene in a Disney film. I could hardly watch it. I hid my face. I begged my family to skip scene. I was reduced to a sobbing mess. On a personal level, it harrowed me more than the destruction of Cinderella’s dress.
That reason is because, in watching the scene, I felt the pain of a place of refuge being invaded.
By the time we reach the destruction of the grotto, we are as emotionally invested in Ariel’s collection as she is because we see that the objects are more than objects. They are extensions of herself, encapsulating all her feelings of hope and hopelessness.
Destroying those items is like annihilating a part of her soul.
That is why I hate the “she gave up her voice for a man” line of thought so much. Because it so blatantly disregards the context of the film. Because it paints Ariel as a shallow teenager. Because it places blame for what follows solely on Ariel’s shoulders and absolves Triton of any wrongdoing.
I want to tread carefully here because, like Ariel, Triton is a nuanced and complex character. He has good intentions and cares about his youngest daughter.
Yet, even a well-intentioned individual can be in the wrong. Even an individual who is right about certain things (Ariel is indeed impetuous and reckless at times – though I hope my analysis reminds readers that those are not her sole character traits), can be wrong about other things.
And Triton’s confrontation with Ariel highlights his failings and his faults.
Look at Ariel’s face when she first sees her father in the grotto:
The enhancement of expression in animation allows the audience to clearly see the fear in her face.
Triton has created an environment where his own daughter is afraid of him.
No parent should do that to their child.
Confronting Ariel, Triton says, “I consider myself a reasonable merman. I set certain rules and I expect those rules to be obeyed.”
On one level, Triton is right to expect his children to respect the rules he sets in place.
What I feel Triton misses, however, is that respect is not the same as intimidation.
Since Triton wants Ariel to accept his rules based solely on his authority as her father, he makes it impossible for there to be any communication between himself and his daughter.
This dynamic means that he will not listen to Ariel even when Ariel is in the right and he is not. Children should listen to their parents, but in the same way, parents should listen to their children.
Triton may be in the right to worry about his daughter’s safety, but his fear is still born of bigotry – bigotry that Ariel recognizes and rejects.
Triton, after all, grows angry at his daughter because she wouldn’t let another living being die. He specifically calls her out because she “rescued a human from drowning.”When Ariel counters that allowing someone helpless to miserably drown is cruel, he shuts her down with:
When Ariel points out the illogical nature of her father’s brutal line of thought and says, “You don’t even know him!”, Triton responds:
Even if a viewer is largely sympathetic to Triton, that viewer cannot ignore Triton’s prejudice in this moment.
He generalizes millions of people.
And if the rules he sets down include the tacit understanding, “Let innocents die because, by virtue of their humanity, their lives have no value,” then maybethose rules deserve to be broken.Maybe those rules need to be changed.
Ariel may be a teenager, but she is wiser than her father here.
(Also, can I say that Ariel’s body language here breaks my heart every time I see it? She’s swimming away from her father, recoiling…
…until she’s cowering behind Eric’s statue. She looks like she’s about to cry as her father pours forth more vitriol…
…and after she bursts out with the exclamation, “Daddy, I love him!”, she’s terrified that she’s said it.)
Triton believes that he alone is in the right and destroys the grotto because he feels it is “the only way” to “get through to” his daughter. He believes he must be cruel only to be kind.
Yet, in the end…
…he only succeeds…
…in being cruel.
Triton’s unwillingness to listen to his daughter
– his unwillingness to treat her with the same respect he demands of her –
only widens the gulf between them.
Ariel does not go to the sea-witch because she has been mooning over a man.
Ariel goes to the sea-witch because she has no voice in her own home. Becoming human, she gains the ability to live life on her own terms. Becoming human, she ironically gains the voice she has been denied for so long.
Ariel goes to the sea-witch because her father sends a message to her – a message that she does not matter, that there is no place for someone like her in Atlantica.
Triton may never have meant to send that message, but send it, he did… and he should be held accountable for that.
Indeed, the film does hold him accountable for that.
After destroying the grotto, Triton realizes he has done a horrible thing.
Look into his eyes after Ariel falls to weeping:
Look at the regret in his eyes. Look at the remorse. He knows he has gone too far. He never meant to hurt his daughter like this.
And when Ariel vanishes from Atlantica, Triton takes responsibility for his actions. What does he say when his daughter cannot be found? Does he say, “What folly has my daughter gotten herself into now?”
No. He says:
Simply saying that Ariel ‘gave up [her] voice for a man’ ignores the painful complexity of the situation in which she finds herself. It ignores the depth of her motivation. It ignores Triton’s culpability. It ignores her best character traits and only highlights her flaws (and yes, she has flaws, for she is a multifaceted, well-written character.)
But Ariel’s rejection of prejudice, her ability to see beauty in a group that nearly everyone around her demonizes, her courage and determination and love, are all venerable traits…
…and Ariel’s courage, determination, and love are what inspire Triton to open his heart and change.
Some people say that The Little Mermaid is more Triton’s story than Ariel’s. I disagree and feel that assessment unfairly dismisses Ariel’s emotional journey. Triton has a compelling arc in the film – but that arc is only set in motion because of Ariel’s agency.
He learns from his daughter’s example.
He grows because of her.
Why don’t we talk more about Ariel, the young woman who always challenged her father’s prejudice? Why don’t we talk more about Ariel, who actively spoke out about the flaws she saw in her society? Why don’t we talk more about Ariel, whose actions helped change that society for the better? Why don’t we talk more about Ariel, who formed a bridge between two worlds and enacted positive change?
Why don’t we talk more about that Ariel?
I know Ariel can be impulsive, but she is sixteen years old, and her impulsiveness only makes her character realistic. She makes mistakes but, like her father, she owns up to those mistakes and learns from them:
There are critics of Ariel’s character who want to make the story of The Little Mermaid black and white. Because Triton recognizes Ariel’s impulsiveness, they ignore Triton’s faults and trivialize Ariel.
Yet, the story the film presents is not so black and white. Ariel and Triton are not so one-dimensional.
They both learn from each other and grow together.
This embrace is so meaningful because, by the end of the film, Triton finally shows Ariel the same respect he asks of her and in so doing, he earns her respect.
Ariel, meanwhile, recognizes her own mistakes and gains a new appreciation for her father.
The Little Mermaid is a beautiful film and Ariel is a brave, inspiring, complex heroine.
I also want to point out, Howard Ashman, a gay man who died of AIDS, was a key creator in this film. He also had a key role in creating Beauty and the Beast. The films we worked on were about outcasts.
@the-blue-fairie thank you so much for putting into words what I felt but couldn’t explain! Ariel has always been my fave princess as well, and as I grow older I’ve come to realize more and more how she will never stop being a great representation of me. Exactly because of all what you wrote above. Thank you. I’m a complete emotional mess but happy, too. ♡
Question!! mod kaye, i know you touched a little bit on the topic of magic being taboo for muslim characters… i wanted to write a magical girl story in homage to a genre i love, with a diverse cast of young women, including a hijabi muslim character. now i’m wondering whether this is sketchy. the magical girls’ powers, in-universe, don’t derive from “magic” but from alien technology/quantum physics/something like that, and to separate her further from anything fantastically “magical”, the muslim character’s powers incorporate electricity and computer technology (as one of her mundane hobbies is programming, this is amplified as a source of her power). is it still inappropriate to create such a character or expect her to be received warmly by muslim audiences? should i consider rewriting the character as a non-magical ally or just scrapping her? i don’t want to lose her, since i like the character and i think the magical girl genre should celebrate all kinds of girls and girlhood. but i want to check myself and be cautious. (i’ve seen artists on tumblr draw hijabi magical girl fanart and stuff too, but i know it’s different when it comes from an outsider/oppressor.)
Hello there!
First of all, may I just say how lovely it is to have a question written to me and so sweetly? Thank you just for that and for your concern about writing a Muslim character correctly!
Like every mod has noted before, no people are a monolith, and as I’ve noted before, Islam is understood and prescribed and practiced in different ways by different people. I’ve said before that even more liberal Muslims I know don’t like the idea of magic as it is used by a Muslim character.
Even with the Beauxbatons headcanon, sorting into Hogwarts houses and – as you pointed out – the new obsession with drawing hijaabis as magical girls and even magical creatures (that, I must note, is not always done respectfully or with the idea of proper representation beyond that hijaabi being used as an “exotic” change) – I still often see a consensus of leaving magic alone when it comes to Islam or else treading carefully, and I think we should respect that.
Of course, in the same vein, there are Muslims who don’t have a problem with it. We’re not a monolith and I’m just noting that so that I’m not erasing them.
(In Islam as I’ve been taught it, magic is viewed as having repercussions of evil and only used for ill purposes. There are several stories where someone was taught magic as a trial of faith, and when they proceeded to abuse it, as expected, they lost their faith and were led astray.)
But, to be entirely honest, I also have a magical girl story, and – in the name of representing the girl in me who loves her magical girl animes – there is a Muslim girl who is a hijaabi. I’ve written down this idea as being possibly magical realism, which would then make the entire world have a dream-like state that, I would hope, would cancel out the whole onus of magic being focused on that one Muslim girl character. It’s definitely still a work in progress, and even as a Muslim girl, I want to do the best by my faith and by my own heart.
That might be one possibility to circumvent any problematic aspect, and I think you’ve already done that: playing around with the atmosphere of the world at large. Reading through your idea, I don’t see anything innately problematic about the idea of this Muslim magical girl and her particular talent. If anything, it reads like a superhero origin, and we all know Muslim superheroes that are accepted and do quite well with Muslim readers.
Personally, I often see magical girls as a brand of superheroes. If we can have Kamala Khan – who, as a side note, is wondrous – wearing her suit and transforming and being awesome as a Muslim heroine, I’m pretty sure there’s a way that we can have our magical girls, too.
I agree with you that the magical girl genre celebrates girlhood and I appreciate your concern with representing different girls, so I hope that in some way, this answer helps you. If anything, my primary suggestion would be to continue to write with an eye for making that Muslim character as full-fleshed and real as you can and keep asking respectful questions from people of the Islamic faith when you need to. If you feel you’re stepping away from the more superhero origin story,
I wish you the best of luck! (And if you ever want to talk magical girls, now you know which mod to look up!)
– Kaye
Generally, I would stay away from Muslim characters doing magic unless it’s established that magic is a norm in the universe you’re writing? Like in Harry Potter, it’s just something that exists and I personally (just me here, not trying to speak over anyone) think there’s nothing wrong with, for example, having Muslims at Beauxbatons. I mean, I actually did like that headcanon, and I was thinking about how it would mesh with them being Muslims. I thought maybe they just wouldn’t do divination because knowing the future seems like it would be something that’s haram no matter what? I don’t know – I mean, I’m a revert and even though I’ve studied Islam a lot, there’s still a lot I don’t know.
-Tasbeeh
I think the gaining powers from technological incidents is a really cool idea and circumvents the magic thing but still gives her powers, and if playing around with technology was a hobby of hers, all the better!
– Yasmin
This is a really old post, but as the OP of the Muslim Beauxbatons headcanon being discussed here I feel like I should say something, both in response to this and to similar thoughts in the 88k++ reblogs and notes (!!!) of that post.
I am writing from the perspective of someone who was born and raised Muslim, of immigrant Muslim parents, in a different Muslim country. I spent 11 years of primary and secondary schooling taking Islamic Studies classes, even taking major exams for them. I don’t personally currently practice Islam nor identify as such; however, the legal systems of my origin country count me as Muslim (it’s on my ID card) and I am still very much culturally Muslim due to my extended family and heritage. So I am not coming from out of nowhere, this is not academic to me – this is all coming from lived experience.
I am immensely frustrated with the overwhelming number of people on Tumblr – it’s only Tumblr – that try to dismiss any possibility of magical Muslims by saying that magic is forbidden in Islam, as though it is such a cut-and-dried case. As you said, Islam is not a monolith, but what’s happening here is that there are entire cultural systems being erased here because of this notion that if it’s currently considered “haram” it was always haram.
For example, there is a significant witchdoctor culture in Malay culture (bomoh/pawang) which I believe started from animist/indigenous beliefs but soon became syncretized with Islam, in a manner similar to how many South American and African cultures syncretized Catholicism with their Indigenous beliefs and spiritualities. It’s not uncommon to see Quranic verses prescribed like medicine, for certain foods and potions blessed with prayers to be distributed as cure-alls, for recognition of mythological beings like orang bunian (a type of fae) or siren-esque sea princesses through ritual and dance (e.g. Ulek Mayang, originally a dance about the appeasement of a sea princess who falls in love with a fisherman, or the Kuda Kepang dances that involve horse spirits). They’re very much magical – and they’re very much Muslim.
However, these cultures are dying out. Part of it is due to the growing skepticism from more modern-day Gen X + Millenial folks who think they’re trafficking in baseless superstition. But part of it is also due to the work of conservative Islamist people in power – police, Government, etc – who think these practices are so anti-Islam that they should be eradicated. Centuries of art, lore, culture, history are being erased or neutered because the ruling powers are being hypersensitive about what is “the correct way of doing Islam”, mostly to the detriment of others – such as immigrants like my family, who are always accused of “doing Islam wrong” in similar ways to POC groups in the US being called “unAmerican”.
So when Tumblr Muslims – who are mostly Western-born or Western-based – start dismissing any notion of Islam syncretic magic with “harammmmm!!!!” it brings up really uncomfortable associations with the people who are eradicating Indigenous and historical practices to assert a very restrictive view of Islam.
(I know that in my parents’ Bangladeshi culture there are people who play similar roles but I don’t know much about that side of things. I do remember having my pencils blessed for good luck and I think I got a name from one such person too.)
My other point of frustration is that in these stories – such as the magical girl system talked by the OP or the Muslim Beauxbatons headcanon – magic is a natural force that one is granted with upon birth. Unlike magic IRL, it’s not really something you have much of a choice over. A Muslim Beauxbatons student would have been born with magic to even get in the school. Hell, we even have canon evidence for Muslim wixen in the Potterverse – look up some of the names mentioned with the Quidditch World Cup and the controversy with the flying carpets. If your counter is “it’s haram”, you’re basically saying their existence is haram even if they can’t help being that way.
Sounds familiar? Because this is pretty much the same thing being told to LGBTIQA Muslims. They are haram because being anything other than cis or het is haram. Even though they were more likely than not born this way.
Are you seriously going to say Allah made them haram? Do you want them to repress their magic just like these people are being told to repress their sexuality? That could be a really interesting plotbunny, but think of the implications of denying a natural force to an entire demographic of people – a natural force that by design doesn’t discriminate.
Hi, I’m white (for the most part, my family has Eurasian ancestry but we didn’t know about this until after my grandfather died) and I’m not Muslim but from discussions I’ve had with a Muslim classmate and with the now-not-on-tumblr petrichorlore I’ve heard that magic in Islam can be harder to categorise than simply magic?
One of the explanations I read was that certain things cannot be imagined and certain things can (the former a square with six sides and the former say a Dragon), and that this distinction plays into whether it is classed as magic, a miracle or something else entirely? The other thing I recall was that the magic that is haram is (if I’m recalling rightly please do correct me if I’m wrong) is the magic that comes from talking to Jinn and Demons? While other apparently “magical” feats can be abilities granted by God/Allah, as a miracle the individual can do? In which case in a world where individuals might natively have magic, wouldn’t that fall closer to the miracle definition than the magic definition? (Might it also affect how they use magic, if I’m recalling this rightly?)
(Please note, these are genuine questions, I am not trying to talk over anyone, just trying to confirm what I recall from other discussions to understand how it all interacts.)
I confess I am coming at this from a similar angle to how I came at Christianity vs. Magic, in that often the specific kinds of magic banned are spelled out. If I recall rightly in Christianity one is forbidden from the forms of magic which involve raising the dead to predict the future, using the bodies of the dead, or communicating with serpents. Is there something similar in the Quran, or is it a blanket thing with the sole exception being feats which are miracles?
Queer Fiction Writer 